Dave Le Fevre wrote:Some time in the 1970s, my wife and I went to an open evening at The Magic Circle. The format was stage show, close-up, stage show. One of the stage acts was Terri Rogers, an absolutely hilarious vent performance.
One of the close-up routines was cups & balls, using three ordinary kitchen mugs. When the final loads appeared, my wife’s jaw hit the floor. I think that, to this day, were she asked what was the single most astounding magic performance she’s ever seen, she’d reply that cups & balls routine. The performer was engaging and entertaining, but it was the balls changing into three different fruit or vegetables that stunned her.
Love stories like that, Dave. As Vernon always advocated, "A good magic effect should easily be described in one sentence."
And as much as a stunner as the appearance of 3 different fruits/vegetables certainly is, the production of a fourth one delivers a devastating knockout blow. I cannot count how many times laymen have exclaimed to me, with incredulous, scrunched-up faces, words to the effect of, "'That's impossible, there are only three cups!" And loading the fourth load is no harder, and maybe even less detectible, than the first 3, because, if anything, the misdirection is strongest at that point, as they are so stunned at the prior revelations.
